RAPPORT
Volume 3 Issue 1 (2018)
Learning ePortfolio process in the
2017/2018 academic year was good:
“we would not change the process,
but some aspects inside that
process” (S3, G1).
“teachers should explain in a better
way why the Learning ePortfolio
could be helpful for us. If we were
conscious about it from the
beginning, maybe we would have
made a bigger effort” (S2, G2).
“it would help us listening to students’
personal experiences about their own
Learning ePortfolio processes. This
year it wasn’t possible, but I think it
will help future students. I would be
ready to explain my personal
experience next year” (S1, G1).
Furthermore, teacher educators agreed
that discussion and agreement was
needed about the characteristics of
Learning ePortfolios and artefacts:
“we didn’t clearly define the Learning
ePortfolio process” (T, G1).
was good. Results from this study have
evidenced that the beginning of the
process was complex for all participants.
However, at the end of the process
teachers and students appreciated the
use of the Learning ePortfolio.
Students and teacher educators realised
that the Learning ePortfolio helps
students reflecting on their learning
processes. In that sense, we could agree
with Alcaraz (2016), Scully, O’Leary and
Brown (2018) and Soto (2016) on
considering the Learning ePortfolio as a
significant tool for students to foster self-
reflection about their learning. As
demonstrated in the results, students
became aware that they could upload on
the one hand, academic artefacts, that is,
evidence of what they learnt at university;
but also personal artefacts that could be
related to their learning experience. In
that sense, students believed that they
were capable of making personal and
academic-learning connections explicit in
their Learning ePortfolios.
Conclusions Thus, Learning ePortfolios appear to help
students reflecting, being autonomous,
self-regulating and self-assessing their
learning processes and learning to learn
for a lifelong learning. So, it helps
students developing 21st century
competences and being aware of their
own learning processes. Those are also
the reasons why teacher educators
consider the Learning ePortfolio as an
important tool to know students deeply.
New insights into teachers’ and students’
perceptions about the use of Learning
ePortfolios have been revealed in this
research study. As shown in the results
participants identified several aspects to
improve in the forthcoming academic
year, nevertheless, all participants
agreed on the idea that the experience However, both students and teacher
educators agreed that there are some
improvements and changes to make
when designing the implementation of
Learning ePortfolios. The teacher
educators’ perception is that they all
started the process quite fast, before
discussing and agreeing the nature of
“we agreed on four things and we
started the process” (T, G2).
Indeed, teacher educator (G2) asserted
that:
“it’s essential to discuss about the
tool and the process if we are going
to use it for the whole degree”.
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